First day of school!

Two posts in one day?? I know! What is this business!? I just had to do it. Today was my first day of school... again. I am officially a beginning freshman at BYU and in order to celebrate, we took first day of school photos.

Do you remember these?? I remember them being a lot less scary and I remember being a lot cuter.

My first class started at 5:10pm. This happens when you have kids to take care of and work to deal with. Not me working, but my hubby. Someone has to be home to take care of the kids! Anyhow. I was so excited to be at class that I didn't want to be late. I arrived at 4:52 and went to my class. The lights were off and no one was in the hallway. I thought I came on the wrong day, so I went upstairs and checked my class schedule. I had the right day and time. So what the heck is going on? Let me tell you. No one comes to class 18 minutes early! Not even the teacher! I finally saw some people meandering their way down and decided to just go turn the light on in the room and set myself down. I obviously had some time to kill, so I started to write.
  *  *  *  *  *  *
"My first day of class. . . my thoughts? Why is no one talking? Why don't I say something? No, I'll just sound like an idiot. Shoot! I forgot where I parked the car already. Obviously I'm nervous. Feelings? Utter terror. My heart is pounding like crazy. Get a grip! It's only an english class! We'll just ignore that it's my very first class as a college student. Oh my gosh, I've been married longer than my teacher. She's talking a lot, I'm anxious. I don't even know what Rhetoric means. Oral Presentation!? Shoot. Shoot. Shoot! This is going to be interesting."
 *  *  *  *  *  *
My first assignment? To write a persuasive paper of any subject I'd like. You think it would be easy to come up with something right? Wrong. That's WAY too broad for me. Any suggestions on what I should write? Because I keep coming up with things like.

"Kids should not play video games until they're at least 12."
"Parents should be required by law to take parenting classes before having kids."
"Public schools should serve all healthy food."

I am excited to get started! I love school and I love that I'm finally getting back into it.

Yeah I Know, They're Pretty Cute

This was quite the eventful weekend! My cousin was married in the Salt Lake Temple and one of my old college friends was also married the same day in the Winter Quarters Temple. Naturally there is no possible way for me to go to both. Perhaps one day, they'll be able to invent something so that I can split myself in two. *sigh* Anyway- My parents came to town for the wedding and stayed with us for the weekend. I love it when they come! I wish we could live closer to them so that A and E could spend more time with their grandparents. Maybe one day. While they were here and not doing wedding business, we had fun spending time together. A was quite enamoured with grandma and grandpa. Cept, he calls them both 'tam-pa?'...translation, "grandpa". We went to the Bean museum at BYU and looked at all the animals up there. Then my parents took him to cabelas where he got to look at all the fishies! I guess they have a huge fish tank there. When they got back, they told me that once they got to the fish tank, it was feeding time and the staff dumped a load of goldfish into the tank. . . haha. I'm just glad A isn't old enough to ask why the other fish are eating all the goldfish! My cousin got married on Saturday and we had it all worked out so it would be perfect and easy, but come on, when do perfect and easy every really go together? M got very very sick Friday, so I went to the wedding with my parents and the two boys- who I will have to admit were very dashing in their white shirts and green ties. The ceremony was at 4:20, got done at about 5. I had my cousins watching my kids during this time. When I got out, one of the girls there said that E pretty much cried the whole time. yep- that sounds about right, the baby that never fusses has to freak out the one time I need him really not to! At least by the time I got to him, he was asleep. Luckily she didn't have to suffer too long. Then when the happy couple came out of the temple, it was FrEeZiNg outside, beautiful weather the whole week and then it rained on her day. :( We took pictures for about 5-10 minutes and then had to drive to get my car. My parents had to be at the airport by 7 I think and I kind of needed a car to get home. You'd think that finding a parking spot close to where you need to be would be fairly easy. . . but here's the thing; you've never driven with me! This man gave me directions to the Conference Center underground parking--couldn't find it. So not wanting to waste time I just found a side street and parked there. Little did I know that I'd parked a lot further away than I thought! By the time I walked clear over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (JSMB) where we were to have the dinner celebrating my cousins wedding, it was past 7. I didn't get to say goodbye to my parents. Not exactly something I like missing out on. Before I go on, don't get me wrong, I had a great GREAT day. It was so special to be with my family and see my cousin bonded together with the love of her life. I love how busy my kids keep me and I even enjoy my lack of directional skills, because if I had not have gotten lost, I wouldn't have enjoyed the nice walk through Temple Square! And now- moving on. The dinner in the JSMB was excellent. They had us assigned at different tables so we could get to know the different families. I was paired with the young married couples. And ALL of them seemed to be VERY baby hungry. haha. I asked A at one point to say 'please' and he did. Then he said 'thank you' to me while signing thank you and they just ate it up. He said his big "Amen!" at the end of the prayer. I heard everyone go 'Awwww... Ooooo... oh how cute!' One guy told me he wanted to just eat up his fat little cheeks. As a mommy, it just makes me so happy that other people enjoy my boys as much as I do. A has this new face thing he does- I'll have to record it and put it on here one day- but what he does is gets his little hands scrunched up into fists then flexes his face muscles so his head shakes. It looks SO funny. Most of the guys at the table got such a kick out of it, that they'd copy him so that he'd do it again. During the two hours that we were at the dinner, A did his best show in order to get attention. A few of the girls told me they wanted to steal him, one guy was like "if I had to babysit any kid, this would be the one." After the dinner a few women I didn't know came up to me and said how much they loved watching my boys and me. The thing is, watching two little boys alone is pretty dificult. However, I wouldn't have missed the wedding for anything. We got home close to 11. As soon as I got everyone packed in the car, they crashed. I was pretty jealous. I'm not gonna lie. Once we were home and settled, I crashed on the couch. What a wonderful day for my family and especially my cousin! I'm glad I was able to be there.

These pictures down here are separate from the story above. We just got them over the weekend and I wanted to show them off. This was E's 6 week photo shoot.

Baby toesies.

Hi Mommy

Precious time with his Daddy

A gracing us with the best face he wanted to display


My little angel

Sweet big brother

My favorite one of E I think

Oh A, A, A. What would we ever do without you. :)

My piece of Heaven

These photos were all taken by M's uncle Dan Hixson. He's a great photographer. http://www.danhixsonphotography.com/
Thanks Dan!

Oh- also you'll notice there's a light band on some of the pictures. Thats my scanner, not the actual photo.

Saturday at the Park!

As you can see Ethan is beginning to help hold his bottle. This photo is somewhat deceiving, because he really doesn't keep his hands there, its just when he's really excited about his food, his hands seem to fly to his bottle! He is still a very pleasant baby! The photo below is when we went to the park and McKay caught him rubbing his face and I thought it was fun little picture of him. He will be three months old tomorrow. How time sure flies!

We stayed at the park for about an hour. Its just the small one right by our house. I do wish it was a little nicer and had grass instead of cement and rocks. haha Ayden didn't seem to care and honestly I just love being with my family and I can't get enough of the nice weather!

Being inside does strange things to your face.

This is a little out of order. Before we went to the park, Ethan got a nice bath and I haven't really taken many bath pictures of him.

Ayden spinning the broom like his Daddy did. He was actually pretty good at it.

I have no explanation for my face. I'm going to hope I wasn't trying to smile and McKay just caught me in the middle of one of my sentences!

Loving the teeter totter.

We tried it with McKay on one side and me on the other holding Ayden, but he kept asking to get "down?" . . . "all done" . . . "down?". So of course I got down, because its no fun to play with a toddler that doesn't want to play with you. I assumed he'd get down and go to the slide or something, but he ran back and said "up?"

He just didn't want me on the teeter totter with him. I was worried that he would fall off without my help, but as you can see, he did a really good job. McKay was at the other end just pushing his side up and down while Ayden sat contentedly.

For the most part, this is where Ayden lived while we spent our hour at the park. Standing at the top of the play place, throwing the ball down the slide and then waiting for me or McKay to toss it back up to him so he can throw it back down the slide!

Great fun when you're only two and don't want to go down the slide yourself!
And this last photo is just because I thought it was cute. He has all of his teeth in but the few in the bottom front! As most of you know, when you see Ayden, he usually looks like this... big smile on his face, ready to entertain and of course, get attention.

A's thought process

I apologize for those of you that have to read this... actually nevermind, because you really don't have to ready this at all.

A has been sleeping in his toddler bed and has been doing great with it. The only thing is, he won't get off the bed. He had a phase where he would crawl off, no problem... but now he seriously won't get off unless I help him. M says when he's around A doesn't care and will get on and off the bed without hesitating. This morning I was determined to not help him. So I opened his door and told him to come down for some cereal. And I went downstairs myself waiting for him to come down. He sat up there at the edge of his bed for about 45 minutes, just moaning and crying and asking for me. I don't get it!! Its barely off the ground! and if he really does get off the bed with M, then why the heck can't he crawl off with me! I went back upstairs and showed him how to get off. But no-- he just stood up and held his arms out so I could pick him up. There's no way I'm going to get outsmarted by a two year old, so I set him down and turned his little body around so he could slide off the bed. It took him maybe a half a second to slide off. What a waste of his time- he sat up there for 45 minutes crying when it took him no time at all to just slide off the bed! I seriously seriously don't get it. I don't understand what sort of logic is running through his head. Maybe he counts it as a victory since I was in the room with him, right next to the bed and right next to him. lol

Round Two

This will be the second times I've written this blog. Don't you just love technology! Anyway, I was writing about this week and a few updates about the boys. First- the updates. A is 21 months old now and becoming more and more familiar with English every day. His memory is incredible. We will be outside playing and he'll hear a plane and he'll look up in the sky and point to it, saying 'plane!' The most interesting thing about this is I never remember teaching him what a plane was or that it flies in the air. He impresses me every day. He's just now begun to put words into a sentence. His newest thing to say is 'how are you?' I'm sure he doesn't really care what the answer is to this question quite yet, but since Mommy asks him, he might as well ask Mommy too. :) A is very good to his little brother thank goodness. He has his moments when he'll throw a ball at him, whip him with a burp towell, steal his binki or most recently, poke him in the head with his booger sucker. E is a pretty good sport for the most part. The booger sucker is the only one he wasn't too happy about. But like I said, A's kind moments outweigh his naughty ones by far. I've caught A putting the binki in E's mouth when he's crying and even his bottle sometimes. He's pretty good at getting it in his mouth facing the right direction which is a big deal for such a little guy! He'll even hold the binki until E has a good grip on it. A will also help burp him and come let me know when E is fussy. He is a very good big brother.

I'll doE's update in a second. I'm trying to follow the pictures as best I can. This week was very busy for us! A had his K relatives come visit on Wednesday and they're leaving Monday. We've been running around with them, shopping, eating out and playing a lot. A has been loving the attention! Usually when family comes to visit, his napping schedule gets a little messed up. On Thursday we caught him asleep in his high chair after eating a sandwich. The poor kid was wiped out! M thought it was hilarious. Mostly because when he was A's age- he did the exact same thing! Not only did we have the excellent pleasure of having the K's visiting, but his Aunt M came down Friday night with a few of her friends. A was thrilled. He gets a little sick of just Mommy and Daddy and Aunt M and her friends stayed with us. So he had fun playing and 'flirting' with them when they were here.

Ok- E's update. He is 9 weeeks old now and growing like crazy! I would say like a weed, but I don't like using that word when referring to my baby. I want to get rid of weeds and E is no weed. :) So if you can think of anything else I can compare him to... Anyway, he is 13 lbs now. He's gone from 8 lbs 4 oz to 13 lbs. What can I say? My kids just love to eat! They are K's after all. E is getting much better at holding his head up. He's been able to hold it up since the day he was born, he's just learning how to control it now. He is also cooing and smiling at us a lot. I love that he's learning how to use his face!

So- all is good in Provo Utah. The weather is terrible. It snowed today. Its getting to the point
where it's just annoying when it snows. I'd like the weather to transition and stay in its transition.... not go backwards. This picture here is one of those snowy/rainy days. A and I just stay in and watch movies all nice and cozy. I took this picture in particular because of where A is sitting.

He'll normally sit on the couch to watch a movie or in his poof which is closer to the TV usually. But for some reason on this day he wanted to sit on the other side of the room against the wall. He was there for about half the movie. Cute boy.

As for M and I, we are doing good. School is still going. Bills are still coming. Work is still work. It will be nice to get a vacation this summer.

Vaseline

I swear I set myself up for the disasters A creates. He's been very good about sleeping in his toddler bed thank goodness. But now every morning since he's realized he can get out of bed, he's been playing in his room or crying at the door before I come in to get him. Unfortunately for me... today he decided to play. And somehow he found the vaseline that we put in his room. Why we put vaseline in there is beyond me! That's like asking for a mess to happen and not a small scale mess either. I went in this morning to get him and found this goopy stuff around his mouth and nose. At first I thought it was snot, but when I took him downstairs and put him in his high chair, I touched his hands and felt the chapstick/jelly feeling. So I spent a short part of my morning cleaning an entire tub of vaseline off my walls... which really does have an uncanny similarity to snot. Unfortunately this stuff is clear and so I don't know where else he's rubbed it. That'll teach me to put stupid stuff like that in a toddlers bedroom. haha

My version of the Sunday funnies

If I really wanted to. I'm sure I could I write about every day of my life and all about the strange things that seem to happen EVERY day. That's what I get for having two very little boys--and one in particular who is learning how to do everything by himself.

Exciting news first, A has finally graduated from his crib to his toddler bed! I can honestly say I'm surprised at how well he transitioned. He seems to be under the impression that if there is a bar there he cannot get out of his crib or in this case his big boy bed. I would have assumed that since he is much much close to the floor and there is only one bar on one side of his bed, that he would climb out when he wakes up and play. This is definitely not the case- I got up this morning to get him and he was sitting in his bed, waiting to be picked up.
I wish this was how the rest of the day would have panned out for me, easy and frankly--boring. This morning, I got A out of bed and went downstairs with him. The rest of the house was still sleeping by this time and I wanted to get a little more rest, but still be close enough to hear A. About 15 minutes later I got up and found A destroying the cake I had made the night before. He has it all over the cupboards, the chair, floor, himself and the counter. The photo does not do justice to the horror I had to see. Lucky for me, I had not put the frosting on the cake yet or I would have had an even more disastrous mess on my hands. The most tragic part of this is I now do not get to enjoy even one regular bite. I'll have to suck all the little crumbs through a straw in order to get anything!

I think A feels much more at home in a pig stigh than in a clean house-- because as I am speaking... er typing, he is throwing oranges past my head. And yes I did turn around to see what he was doing only to find him without his shirt on... I don't know what happened to it. He's rubbed oranges all over his belly, hair, ears, hands and toes. How he managed to get oranges between his toes is completely beyond me, but there you have it. We've been home from church for one hour and he's already made a mess.

At least he looked studly before we left. :)

Since when did you learn my name son?

What a joy it has been to be the mother of two wonderful little boys! I cannot imagine my life without them. They makes things so much fun, interesting, frustrating, simple, and memorable! One particular memory I won't forget too soon is A learning new words. For the past few weeks he has somehow learned what my name is... and I don't mean Mommy. So, yes as I'm upstairs showering or folding clothes or somewhere where he isn't and he wants to find me, I'll hear a cute little voice yell out 'J**!' I'll usually poke my head around the corner to see him looking for me and he'll very proudly run up to me and say even louder 'J**!' I fold my arms in surprise. "yes?" And he'll just go on and ask me what he wants, completely unconcerned with my shock. It is pretty cute to hear my name coming out of a 20 month old, I'll have to admit, who at the moment only understands that saying J** and Mommy gets my attention.

He's got a headstart on me when I was that age. I remember asking my mom when I was probably about 5 or 6 what her name was, I just naturally assumed her name was Mom until she explained to me otherwise. I just heard everyone else call all these other ladies Mom and it just didn't make sense that all women were named that... I mean- I wasn't named that and I couldn't be the ony female on earth with a different name. Thank goodness I asked her when I was little enough not to get made fun of for not knowing my Mothers' name.